Thurston was unable to attend due to preparation for this weekend’s semi-final clash in Townsville but sent his apologies and an acceptance video message.

The RLPA Rookie of the Year was awarded to Cameron Munster (Storm) who flew up from Melbourne to accept his trophy.

The Players’ Player Medal and Rookie Award are determined by tallying Players votes for their opponents on a 3-2-1 basis after each game of the NRL regular season.

Player voting in the National Youth Competition saw Viliame Kikau from North Queensland named the NYC Player of Year.

The prestigious RLPA Dennis Tutty Award was presented to Tom Symonds (Sea Eagles) for his commitment and determination to champion and defend the rights of his fellow players.

The night also celebrated career milestones and achievements at youth, premiership and representative levels of the game.

The One Solutions Representative Player of the Year Awards honoured the contribution made by Players to their national teams during the 2014 Four Nations, the 2015 State of Origin and Test Matches.

Corey Parker (Broncos) was named the Australian Representative Player of the Year while the New Zealand Representative Player of the Year honour went to Shaun Johnson (Warriors) for the second year in a row.

Josh McGuire (Broncos) was awarded the Rest of the World Representative Player of the Year title for his feats with Samoa.

Queensland’s Billy Moore (17) and Corey Parker (16) along with New South Wales players Danny Buderus (21), Steve Roach (17) and Wayne Pearce (15) were inducted into the RLPA Origin Gold Club presented by Seiko in recognition of at least 15 appearances for their State.

Melbourne Storm was named the RLPA NRL Welfare Club of the Year and the Parramatta Eels earned the RLPA NRL Education Club of the Year award.

Fifteen Players received the RLPA Chairman’s Award to mark their Representative debuts for either Australia or New Zealand.

Making their debut for Australia in the Test against New Zealand on 25 October, 2014 were Josh Mansour, Daniel Tupou, Dylan Walker, Aaron Woods and Aidan Guerra. In the same Test Jason Taumalolo made his Kiwi debut. Suaia Matagi made his debut for New Zealand on 1 November in the Test against Samoa.

Debuting for the Kangaroos against England in 2 November 2014 were Sione Mata’utia, Ben Hunt and David Klemmer while Josh Jackson made his debut for Australia against Samoa on 9 November 2014.

On 3 May this year the Kangaroos welcomed four debutants in the Test against New Zealand in Will Chambers, Josh Dugan, Alex Johnston and Trent Merrin.